


pulled from the earth

by unraelated



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Claude's impeccable wyvern handling skills, Dragon!Dimitri, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Resurrection, Sort Of, Verdant Wind Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:40:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22152673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unraelated/pseuds/unraelated
Summary: Dimiclaude week, day six: "Reunion"After the battle against Nemesis, Claude comes face to face with a monster from his past.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Claude von Riegan
Comments: 19
Kudos: 239





	pulled from the earth

Claude made his way back to camp, his green eyes critical as he surveyed the damage - the lives lost in the marshy swampland, the horses and pegasi that lay dead on the battlefield. It was a ruin and he had made it that way, but they’d won. In the end, wasn't that all that mattered?

Maybe not.

“Claude!”

He turned, his brow furrowed at the cry - sharp, urgent, and he watched as Leonie and Lysithea moved for him, something unreadable in their eyes. He didn’t like that expression on them at all.

Lysithea spoke first, stepping in front of Leonie, her tiny fist clenched at her chest.

“You have to come see this.”

“What is it?” he asked, his brow furrowing, but Lysithea looked away, unable to answer. It was Leonie who stepped up then with her fingers still holding tight to her bow.

“We… we captured one of the generals,” she told him, glancing toward the camp in apprehension. “While you were dealing with Lamine, we - we thought you’d want to see him alive.”

“ _What_?” A rush of possibilities invaded his mind - he’d lamented not being able to study the elites, to question them or talk to them as they fell, but if Leonie had managed to take one down… but then again, something about the whole affair seemed wrong, in the way they wouldn’t meet his eyes, the sad and frightened looks on both of their faces. Something wasn’t right - what could it be?

Claude felt then a rush of curiosity that upended any dread that the situation might have otherwise given him. While it would have likely been more appropriate to sympathize and be concerned over their reactions, he found that all he could do was look ahead toward where Leonie had been watching.

“Are they sentient? Speaking? Do they react to questioning?” No, that could wait, he needed to _see_ it. Excitement at the idea of uncovering more of Fódlan’s complex history gripped at him and he nodded toward Leonie. “Take me to them.”

She clearly didn’t share his excitement but reluctantly nodded, keeping her bow in hand. Lysithea trailed behind the both of them and as they approached, Claude was beginning to understand the reason for their concern.

There was a small crowd gathered in a wide circle around whatever this was. Their bodies hid the spectacle from view, but the gasps of disbelief and grunts and cries of those closer to the center of the circle echoed outward. Bodies parted as Claude made his way through, catching a glimpse of black armor, the briefest view of white bone, and there a snatch of blond hair.

When he finally broke through the crowd, the sight before him made him go still with shock.

“...impossible.”

“Tell that - to him,” Hilda grunted out from nearby, her voice strained with exertion. She was holding onto a steel pole with a looped rope at the end, using all of her considerable strength to keep the monster’s head close to the ground. Another soldier had a similar device hooked around its arm, and yet another soldier with the other arm. A beast. A monster.

Dimitri.

Except… it wasn’t.

The armor was familiar, as was the hair, the curve of his jaw, but he was - this was… the gauntlets were gone, revealing fingertips that ended in curved white animal claws, his tail - a _tail_ \- was scaled and barbed, lashing out at anyone nearby. His teeth were fangs, barely fitting in his mouth and part of his mouth itself was encased in white bone, same as the bone which jutted out from his spine like a second ribcage in some horrific mutated attempt at creating flightless wings. His hair was streaked through with a bright green and when Claude looked at his eyes, his _eyes_.

The right one was missing, he knew that from seeing him at Gronder. Here, with him pressed against the dirt, it was uncovered, _present_ , and reptilian.

“Dimitri…” he breathed, barely audible, but the beast - was it still Dimitri? - heard him, his head snapping toward Claude, eyes narrowing in anticipation of a threat as it bellowed out a roar that sounded not unlike his wyvern.

The crowd took a step back. Claude did not.

Seeing him there, like this, Claude could see the hole in his chestplate, the sagging metal melted completely away around the center of his chest, which Claude recognized instantly was implanted with a glowing, pulsing -

“Crest stone,” came a voice from next to him. Claude turned to see Seteth beside him, watching Dimitri with a carefully blank expression on his face. “Likely his own, from the Areadbhar. A new heart. But the rest…”

The green in his hair. The bones, trying to make wings, the claws, his _eye_.

“Do you think,” Claude started, taking a neat step back at Dimitri’s attempt at a lunge, “with how long they had Rhea -”

Seteth’s expression shifted into one of barely-concealed rage, his teeth grinding together as he watched this abomination struggle against its captors.

“Kill it,” he finally said, his voice laced with disgust, “human bodies were not meant to withstand… _this_.”

“What _is_ this?” Claude finally asked, pressing. Dimitri tried to move again but Raphael had finally showed up with manacles that looked like they could restrain a demonic beast. Claude only hoped it could be enough and he watched as Raphael took a few quick steps before vaulting forward and reaching a hand for the back of Dimitri’s neck, his knee pressing down on his spine to force him down with all of his weight.

Dimitri roared again in reaction, trying to buck him off but held down by the three - no, five - men and women holding him down with restraints.

“It seems like they didn’t stop at trying to bestow two crests,” Lysithea finally said from her position behind him, staring darkly toward the beast. “They wanted... this.”

Seteth shook his head while Raphael manacled one hand and wrenched it over. Dimitri snarled, pulling back and nearly ripping him clean off of his back, but was held firm, his cheek pressed into the dirt as Raphael clipped the second cuff over his other wrist.

“I don’t think this was their ideal outcome,” Seteth remarked, his eyes narrowing. “Put it down. I doubt a cage can hold that thing for long.”

Dimitri’s tail lashed out, raking across Raphael’s back but it wasn't muscular or quite sharp enough to damage him significantly. It did nothing as he was forced against the ground, heedless of his attempts to escape. Hilda moved closer while Raphael kept both his hands on either shoulder, holding him down for Hilda to take out her dagger and crouching with a knee against one of his shoulders near Raphael's hand and pressing her blade against the back of his neck.

“I saw him die,” she said, her voice trembling despite the strength with which she held the dagger, “he was _dead_ , Claude.”

But Claude said nothing. Hilda didn’t kill him, waiting for an order. Despite Dimitri’s frantic struggling, he couldn’t move more than a few inches in any way due to the multiple restraints and soldiers holding him down. He roared again, but this one was quieter and ended in something that sounded more like the cry of a man. 

With a cheek pressed against the ground, he looked up at Claude, meeting his gaze with that piercing blue that Claude would recognize anywhere. Dimitri’s tongue flicked out, too long to be human, and he opened his mouth, soundless. He tried again, tipping his head back heedless of the dagger pressed against his skin, his tail whipping against the ground behind him.

“Kh- kh -” it said, lips curling back. “Kh- ahh….d.”

“Give the order,” Seteth said, and Claude held his hand up to silence him, his eyes wide. He stepped closer, watching as Dimitri’s eye followed him, and moved to crouch down next to him, his heart pounding in his chest.

Dimitri stopped struggling. He barely moved at all, didn’t even breathe. Even from this distance, Claude could feel the heat radiating off of his body and could see a bead of sweat drip down Raphael’s brow.

“Claude. That’s my name. You remember that, right?”

Dimitri convulsed in an impulse of movement and Raphael struggled to keep his balance. It took Claude a moment to realize that Dimitri was an inch closer, neck straining at he looked up at him.

He opened his mouth again, wider than he had the first time, his lips peeling back to show his pointed fangs, his curling tongue, the burning ember in the back of his throat. Claude could barely comprehend what he was seeing before Dimitri spat out a puff of smoke from his mouth, a solitary flame licking up through the gray cloud of it before dissipating in the late afternoon air.

“Did he just- “

“Claude, be careful - !”

“Get back -”

But Claude waved them all off, removing Seteth’s sudden and protective hand from his shoulder and leaning in just a little closer, holding a hand out to the beast, hovering just over his head. He could feel the heat radiating off of his skin and Dimitri whined, miserable and trapped against the ground.

“It’s okay, big guy,” Claude murmured, reassuring, keeping his hand frozen above him. Dimitri watched him, savage and wild, but after a long few moments, he tilted his chin down, going still and Claude took that as a tentative permission.

He touched him, gentling his palm over the crown of his head and his soft, silken hair and bit his lip as Dimitri’s hair parted to show his pointed ears. Closer like this, closer than anyone else has gotten to him, Claude could make out the patchwork of his skin, his high cheekbones glimmering with white scales, sections of his throat paler than skin and also scaled.

Their breathing went still together and a hush rolled over the crowd around him.

“The last time I saw you,” Claude told him, his voice barely higher than a breath, “we came to blows on the battlefield. I really hope that won’t happen again, don’t you?”

He didn’t know if Dimitri could understand him, but his voice didn’t seem to piss him off and so he continued, lifting his eyes toward Hilda with a jerk of his head, indicating for her to remove the knife, which she did with a furrowed brow. _You’d better know what you’re doing_ her gaze told him and Claude really, really hoped that he did.

Dimitri didn’t react to the blade being removed. His entire focus seemed intent on Claude’s hand on his head, where the heat of him seared itself into Claude’s palm.

“Cah-” Dimitri tried again, grunting, “Cah...d.”

“What do we even do with him?” Hilda asked from her position - still holding him down, but not actively threatening his life, “Seteth is right, I doubt any prison can hold this guy. _Especially_ if he can actually breathe fire.”

Claude ignored her for now, his hand slipping down to Dimitri’s cheek, fingers trailing on the bone that lined his jaw, dangerously close to his sharp teeth. But Dimitri didn’t bite him and Claude spoke to him again, his voice soft, casual.

“Close. But you need the ‘l’ sound. Do you see how my tongue hits the top of my mouth?” Claude showed him, demonstratively. “Cl - _cl_. Claude.”

“This isn’t the _time_ for _language lessons_ ,” Lysithea hissed out from behind him. Claude ignored her too, keeping all of his attention on Dimitri, as Dimitri’s attention was on him.

Dimitri, who puffed a soft plume of smoke from his nostrils and tried again. Claude could feel his mouth move against his fingers.

“ _Cuh._ Cah...ld. Caulde.”

“Ah,” Claude started, but then shrugged, “close enough.”

Now, what to do with him? He glanced up toward Hilda again, his lips pursed in thought. He didn’t want to cage him, but there didn’t seem to be much other option when he couldn’t guarantee that Dimitri wouldn’t just try to kill everyone around him the moment he had free reign.

His brow furrowed as he considered it and Seteth spoke up, protesting.

“You aren’t actually thinking about letting him live?”

“I am,” Claude said, standing, turning on the older man, his jaw going tight, “ _and_ I’m thinking about having a long talk with you about whatever those people did to him. The fire, the scales - you think I don’t notice a similarity?”

Seteth shook his head, folding his arms across his chest and he opened his mouth to speak - but at the last moment, noticed the attention of the crowd on him and closed it again, fuming.

“This is… a bastardization of nature,” he finally settled on, hissed low between his teeth so that only those close by could hear him. “It’s them playing at being gods.”

“Not that you’d know anything about that.”

The anger in Seteth’s gaze turned into something else very quickly, something that Claude recognized as fear. He’d skirted the line here, come too close among common soldiers, but his point was proven and Seteth backed down for now, turning on his heel and shouldering his way back through the crowd.

Rubbing at the back of his neck, Claude turned toward them, raising his voice.

“Keep moving, go about your duties. I’ll handle this.”

No one moved and Claude’s eyes narrowed.

“ _Now_.”

Finally and with more than a few murmurs, they dispersed. Claude looked back down toward Dimitri, who was still watching him, and sighed. What a headache.

“Take those chains,” he ordered, pointing toward the extra things that Raphael had brought to try and apprehend the beast, “Collar him. Let him up.”

Dimitri let out a low, rumbling noise as Leonie helped Raphael with the collar, clicking it around Dimitri’s throat - and then two more around his ankles for safe measure before Raphael, Hilda, and the other soldiers around him finally backed off and let him up, their hands carefully on the chains, ready to pull him off if he lunged in any direction.

The creature moved to stand, unsteadily due to his arms being cuffed behind him still, but once he could get his feet under him and rose to his full height, Claude had to hesitate a moment, not quite realizing just how _tall_ he was. Dimitri towered over him, his protruding bones and the claws on his hands making him look more like a beast than a man.

Claude looked up at him.

“What exactly was he doing when he was captured?”

Leonie glanced away, frowning at the memory.

“He was… tearing through everyone. Their side and ours. There were these… dark mages behind him, doing some kind of ritual. There were these waves of black energy going into him and he was… I don’t know, just so angry.”

“They were activating the crest stone,” Lysithea explained, her voice dark, “the one in his chest. Feeding it power. Maybe trying to synergize it with his blood. When we killed the mages, he fell to his knees and we apprehended him.”

Claude frowned, turning away and motioning for them to follow. They did, dragging Dimitri along in their movements. He lifted a clawed foot and then another, wobbly without his arms to steady him, but managing all the same.

“But he didn’t seem focused on killing us?” He asked. That part was important.

Leonie shrugged, uncomfortable. “He didn’t seem capable of telling people apart. He just ripped into whoever he could.”

Not unlike Gronder, Claude thought darkly. When they finally reached his destination - a copse of trees outside the camp - he indicated toward one of the larger trees, something pulling in his chest. They didn’t have prison cells in the camp, wouldn’t be able to make it back to a fortress where they could keep him captive for days. It was either this or kill him, because as much as the sight of his once-dead friend pulled at Claude’s heartstrings, he couldn't afford to take any chances.

“Tie him there. Get him food and bedding. I want four men guarding him at all times. Don’t be cruel to him.”

His men nodded, and started getting to work, but Hilda looked back at him. “You did see that thing with the fire, right? What if he burns the trees down?”

Claude glanced up toward the sky, considering the air.

“It rained earlier today… the bark will still be wet. Given that he didn’t envelop all of us in a fireball earlier, I doubt he could do enough to actually start a blaze.”

As if to prove it, Dimitri jerked back against one of the hands bringing him closer, his first show of resistance since standing up. He looked toward the tree, then back at Claude, shaking his head.

“Nuh,” he said, urgent, resisting the pull of the chains closer to the tree. “No. _No_.”

Claude bit his lip, resisted the temptation to go to him.

“It’s just for safety,” he reassured, his fingers tightening into a fist. The soldiers got a firmer grip and hefted together, _dragging_ Dimitri toward it, who gave a cry of protest while keeping his gaze on Claude.

“ _No!_ ” he repeated as if it was the only word he knew, but he was lashed in place all the same, the thick chains hooking onto one another and creating a terrible vice that not even a wyvern could break out of.

The men stepped back once their work was done and Dimitri strained against the collar, his eyes screwing shut.

“No.”

“I’ll let you out of there -”

“You’ll _what_?”

“-once you behave,” Claude continued, heedless of the interruption. Dimitri still struggled against the chains and let out a low reptilian shriek from his throat. The sound made Lysithea cover her ears with a wince wincing.

“No, no,” Dimitri tried, and when that didn’t work - “Cal - Clah - _Claude._ ”

Claude stilled, his heart aching to see a former classmate and friend reduced to this. Gronder Field was bad, deadly even, but at least then Dimitri had his friends by his side. At least then, Dimitri had _some_ form of direction, even if that direction was his drive for vengeance. Here, he just seemed lost and… maybe a little scared, which came as a surprise when considering what he had become.

The thought that Dimitri was _scared_ made Claude take a step forward and then two, approaching him despite smattered protests. Claude held out his hand once more, aware that Dimitri couldn’t take it due to his own arms being in chains. But Dimitri didn’t lash out at him either, not when he moved closer, not when he touched his forehead again, slipping his palm alongside the side of his head.

In fact, he tilted his head into it, the sweltering heat from his skin burning at Claude’s palm, but he didn’t pull away.

“Can you understand me?” Claude asked quietly, meeting Dimitri’s eyes, which furrowed in response as he opened his mouth, stumbling on what he was supposed to say. “It’s okay, just nod or shake your head: can you understand me?”

After a tense moment, Dimitri nodded, his ear sliding against Claude’s fingers.

“Good. I need you to trust me.”

It was a lot, too much to ask from him after he’d endured pain and experimentation and who-only-knew what, but it was the only way that Claude could see out of this. Asking for Dimitri’s trust would be foolish if he did not first offer it himself, and so Claude took a step closer, and then closer still, ignoring the heat that came from being in such close proximity to Dimitri. Once he was close enough to feel Dimitri’s breath on his skin, he tipped his head up, nudging Dimitri forward until he could touch the gentle slope of his forehead against Dimitri’s own.

He closed his eyes, letting out a deep breath, and felt Dimitri do the same.

“Trust me,” he asked again, his voice no higher than a whisper, “and I will free you.”

Dimitri took another breath in, let it out through his nose in a hot puff of air, and finally nodded, his head bumping against Claude’s own.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I love this AU a lot, and LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE, I'd like to continue it someday... what is free time? Never heard of it, haha.
> 
> For anyone confused, Dimitri died in Gronder and then was revived by TWS's experimentation, replacing his heart with his crest stone like a certain someone else in canon... except they didn't have Rhea's magic and so substituted with a great amount of her blood, turning Dimitri into a conflicting mess of Dimitri, the Blaiddyd Nabataen, and the Immaculate One. Fun!
> 
> Check me out [@unraelated](https://twitter.com/unraelated) for more Dimiclaude week stuff!!!


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